Archive for February, 2006

Most media accounts about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan center on the service members: the battles they fight, the casualties they face, and their joyful returns home to their families. As members of the military face longer and more frequent wartime deployments, journalist and military spouse Kristin Henderson tells a lesser-known story about what happens to the thousands of families left behind. During 2003 and 2004, she profiled two very different military wives living on Fort Bragg. One embraced the military’s support system; the other became a war protester. Host David Crabtree talks with Kristin Henderson, author of “While They’re At War: The True Story of American Families on the Homefront” (Houghton Mifflin/2006). He also talks with Marissa Bootes, one of the wives profiled in the book. Listener Call-In. (54:00) (CP)

The Bush Administration last week announced plans to sell 300,000 acres of publicly held land. Proceeds of the sale would go to rural schools. Included in the plan is the sale of 15,000 acres of land across North Carolina. Advocates for the program say that the parcels selected for the selling block are hard to manage and located apart from other national forest lands. Skeptics say the program is in conflict with North Carolina’s land conservation program, under which the state has purchased more than 350,000 acres of land since 2000. Host David Crabtree talks about the future of public lands with Joy Franklin, editorial page editor for the Asheville Citizen Times; David Carr, attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center; and Kevin King, manager of Swain County. Listener Call-In. (30:00) (MD)

A website making false claims about aphrodisiac cell phone rings was drawing 100,000 hits a day before the company behind the hoax came clean last week. Oasys Mobile, a cellphone content provider in the Triangle, carefully planned the campaign to spread the word about Oasys products through “buzz” or viral marketing. Host David Crabtree talks with Oasys Mobile chief executive Gary Ban and Jason Musante, associate creative director at McKinney & Silver, the ad agency behind the campaign. (17:30)

According to researchers at Duke University, almost half of American presidents from 1789 to 1974 suffered from a mental illness at some point in life. On this President’s Day, host David Crabtree speaks with one of the study’s authors, Dr. Jonathan Davidson, about how people suffering from mental problems can still function at a high level. (17:30)